Fifth Test: India v England, 16-20 Dec (Chennai)

[Arthur Crabtree]

I expect he'll start at five next summer, with Bairstow at seven. Which means England will have six bowlers again, so another spinner plays.

Blimey , Arthur ...you got your five bowlers - now you want six ? :) Four quicks and two spinners in England surely means someone's not going to get much work ...

Well, I don't think they should look to play six bowlers of course :)

And I don't think Moeen is a top six Test bat (given he's bombable an a bad starter), but he has scored two tons and a fifty, and he's not far off being England's second biggest run scorer in this series(40 runs more) or third (10 runs) so he's clearly not failed. It's hard to say he hasn't taken his chance. Though it felt he was drifting back into the lower order until his knock today. A test batting and bowling average of 50 over the year says more middle order than lead spinner.

I'm not against taking the gloves off JB1, except, he prefers to keep and he's had a great year (though not with the gloves). It feels more likely that Buttler would get the job than Foakes and that hardly gets you a better keeper. And it means Mo would remain the lead spinner. I've always felt (as strongly as England should have five bowlers) that if they only have one spinner, it should be their best spinner. And they should be open to the idea of picking two.

[Arthur Crabtree]

I hope he does find a way to stay in the side, as he's a pretty likeable fella and seems a bit of a mensch.

[meninblue]

England will yet again have to score 450. So its even imo at stumps on Day 1.

[Dr Cricket]

Seems like Chennai but a like oval having different pitches in the square half are red soil and half are black soil.
Would prefer if all the pitches in India got the best natural soil and not imported ones.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/india-v-eng ... 72931.html

[backfootpunch]

Moeen has 4 hundreds in 2016

I'd say he is a long way from being dropped

Pretty sure that's more than root, though root should have 8 or 9 but keeps giving it away over and over

[Making_Splinters]

England should look to play Moeen as a batsman in the top order, then bring in another spinner. Two birds, one stone.

[ianp1970]

England should look to play Moeen as a batsman in the top order, then bring in another spinner. Two birds, one stone.

Something like:

Cook
Hameed
Jennings
Root
Moeen
Stokes
Bairstow
Woakes
Rashid
Broad
Anderson

If so, I think we need to be blooding another batsman in the summer, as that team does not look ideal for Brisbane, Adelaide (D/N) and Perth in the Ashes.

[Arthur Crabtree]

A bit like they're preparing a team for the series that has just ended.

[rich1uk]

not the start we wanted this morning

as yogi berra once said this could be deja vu all over again

[Arthur Crabtree]

Root getting a little criticism right now for not converting his starts to tons, though he is a very consistent starter. Unlike Mo who starts badly, but has made four hundreds this year. Jonny Bairstow too isn't converting- he's made one single figure score in nineteen innings since his last ton, ten of which have been 40+.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Stokes has tailed off a bit in the second half of the tour. 31 is his best score in his last five innings and apart from hs 5-fer in Mohali, has only taken two wickets in the series.

Innings is looking a touch vulnerable.

[rich1uk]

Root getting a little criticism right now for not converting his starts to tons, though he is a very consistent starter. Unlike Mo who starts badly, but has made four hundreds this year. Jonny Bairstow too isn't converting- he's made one single figure score in nineteen innings since his last ton, ten of which have been 40+.

it comes back to this issue about the difference between good stats and being a match winner

big hundreds win you matches, lots of 50s dont

[rich1uk]

buttler looking really wobbly at the start of his innings again

[Arthur Crabtree]

Stokes out 11/12 times to spin in BD and India. Probably not that surprising. Six times to off spin, and five to sla (five times to Ashwin, but that's probably just his quality rather than a weakness to off spin).

[rich1uk]

for someone thats quite a positive character kohli comes across as pretty indecisive about when to ask for a review